Thursday, April 17, 2014

This is my first dabble in Nail Design tutorial’s. Mostly because I have too many friends who do this sort of thing so much better than I do. Some of them even make a living by creating nail designs on their customers and one of them, my dearest friend Miriam, even vlogs about her amazing nail designs on YouTube. She is so much better at all of that than me, and I wholeheartedly recommend that you go and see some of her wonderful tutorials.

However since my mission is to bring creativity into everything, and fill my blog with ideas and even a touch of glamour, you can consider this the first in a hopefully long series of tutorials and ideas for bringing a little more creativity into your personal style.

First and foremost, I believe you must always have clean hands when you start any project but especially when you are going to do your nails. Clean hands and clean nails are a must if your design is going last. After all you wouldn’t put make up on a dirty face would you? So my advice is to either remove any old varnish or just wipe the nail surface with some nail varnish remove to get rid of any excess grease, dirt or residue soap.

Step 2: Let’s Get Started!

Any good nail artist will tell you that every great design starts with a base coat. The great thing about base coats is that they don’t need to be expensive, even just a plain white colour will do for a base coat, basically all you are doing is protecting the nail from any colour staining. Once you’ve done that you can start by painting on your first colour. I used the peach colour first and I painted the entire nail with it.

Step 3: The First Stripe.

So now you have one coat of your first colour, this is where the fun begins! I’m sure you all have a much steadier hand than I do, but as I don’t mind a bit of freehand wobbling I painted a low stripe of the pale pink colour next on my nails. I was going for a sort of sunset theme.

I painted this colour right to the tip, as you can see in my slightly dodgy photo. Once again I only used one coat of this colour, but it you want a brighter colour then I would suggest using two coats of each colour.

Step 4: The Second Stripe, and The Rest…

To get the stripe affect I painted each consecutive colour leaving a margin of the colour below and painting the colour above to the tip.

With the matte black I did an extra coat, making sure that it was dense and solid colour. Then it was just a case of a little clean up with some nail varnish remover and a cotton pad and I was done. I did consider adding a final coat of top coat to make sure the design lasted, but then I realised that the top coat would make the matte black glossy and spoil the effect.

I like the matte black tip, it gives the design an edgier look. I half wish I had longer nails because I know this would design would look way better on a long nail tip and nail body. But I never could type half so fast with longer nails.

So What Do You Think?

I’m sure that there are plenty of you out there that could take this design and make it look even better. It’s an idea, and ideas are the seeds of creativity fostered by its Mother, Necessity. You can quote me on that! I’d love to read your comments and even see photos of your version of this idea. That way I can laud you all! I’d love to hear what you think of this post too. Till next time then.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Dear Readers,
Elite lot that you are! I’m writing this to you because I feel that its necessary to re-introduce myself. So much in my life has changed in the 8 years since I started writing here.

So this is me. My name is Davita Egeland, I am a 32 year old, married woman. I am British, in some ways my nationality defines me. I live in Norway, but I have also lived in Spain, Sweden and Belgium. Though, really, that isn’t so unusual these days. I speak three languages, though I only write here in one.
I’ve written creatively in some capacity since I was 7 years old. Writing is my passion, my problem is hardly ever how to write but what to write about. I am quite opinionated, and lots of different things inspire me, which has made this blog rather random. Although, I think it probably reflects my random personality.

Re-Invention?

Why have I suddenly decided to re-invent this blog? I suppose, that in some ways its rather natural, I am 32 years old and I’ve been married for a few years now, things are different for me now than they were. My desires for life have matured.
At 24 years old I was still looking for adventure, and I had lots of adventures, I moved around and travelled and met lovely people.

I fell in love with Stockholm.

I ate chocolate in Belgium.

I met the Man of my Dreams.

My life was as random as my personality and I really enjoyed it. The last four years I’ve been trying to find my roots with my Norwegian husband and struggled to do that. Till the point where I had a nervous crisis and had to take a time out in the UK for a few months. What I realised while I was away, was that after 14 years of living abroad, it is time to go home.

New Mission

My new mission for my life is to work to live, instead of living to work which has so far been a complete failure. I am just not built to centre my life on a job that I’m not really interested in.
My new mission is to make writing the centre of my work life, so that I can begin to choose when I work instead of grinding away at a job that holds no pleasure for me so I can pay the bills.
My new mission is to write about my domestic life, and the creative things that help me make that domestic life. Perhaps occasionally ranting about something that has gotten under my skin. I want my blog to be a resource of building projects, art projects, sewing and knitting projects, recipes and other things; so that other people can come and read, taking away a smart idea about what they will do in their own life to make their domestic life a little more exceptional. Not that my life is particularly exceptional, rather I hope that my blog can give me the freedom to make my domestic life more exceptional.

So Another Attempt?

Yes, that’s basically what I’m trying to do with this. I’m trying to have one more go at attaining my goal of writing as a means of making a living. I’m trying to be true to the goals I set for myself. So if you can bear with me, or you would like to join me on this journey, as I try and bring a little more creativity into my life and yours. You are more than welcome to leave comments below, subscribe and follow me on Google+ and Twitter.